Adnan Sultan, MD, Interventional Cardiology:
Ischemic heart disease, or cardiovascular disease, is a condition in which there’s a decreased blood supply to the muscle of the heart happening from narrowing or blocked arteries of the heart. Patients having cardiovascular disease can present in two situations. One is stable ischemic heart disease, when patients have significant blockages that decrease the amount of blood supply to the heart muscle, and it’s affecting their quality of life. They’re not able to perform their activities without symptoms.

In other situations, when patients do develop an acute heart attack, these patients present with chest pain. In that situation, our dedicated staff and fully equipped cath lab is available 24 hours a day to provide care to these patients in a timely fashion. We get these patients to the cath lab as soon as we can and by making a small incision in the artery around the leg or the arm, we try to open up the artery in the heart by using wires, balloons and stents.

I love coming to work knowing every day that what I do will impact someone’s life in a better way. Patients who are presenting with heart attacks, that’s the worst and most fearful episode of their life. It’s an honor to take care of them in that situation and to know they’re trusting you with their life.